Unfortunately due to family commitments I won’t be able to go myself, but if anyone from here is going, I’d be very interested if they would maybe ask a few questions and post something here tomorrow.

I’m in favour of the project in principle, which would be fantastic for Ramsey if it’s built, but I’m having great difficulty establishing the basic facts about the people behind it, and their backgrounds (if any) in marine engineering. A project this ambitious should really be managed by people who know what they are doing, otherwise there’s a danger that a lot of energy and money could be dissipated with no useful result. Even if it’s only private money which is wasted and not public money, that would still be money which has exited from the local economy, leaving it poorer as a result.
Here’s a few examples of what I mean:

The official website for the Ramsey Marina project is at http://ramseymarina.com/
This gives an outline of the project, a map, and bios of the organisers. So far so good.

Looking at Robin Bromley-Martin’s bio, it says:
“He has been involved with marine projects nearly all his career all over the world, and presently is CEO and major shareholder of a company building three major ports in West Africa for handling containers and supporting offshore drilling rigs.”

Super – he sounds like just the man for the job. So what is this company and where are these ports? The company isn’t named, but Google suggests that it’s Port Evolution and Development, whose website can be found here:http://www.port-edl.com/

It’s a glossy website explaining how the team project manages port development, and there’s a section of the website labelled “Recent experience”. Aha – now we’re getting somewhere.
The recent experience apparently involves project management and fund raising for the upgrade of two existing port facilities in Russia, total value US$400m. Also project management and fund raising for the development of an offshore supply base and associated industrial facilities in Nigeria, total value US$500m. Also a feasibility study for a new port facility for a private client, also in Nigeria. Great – so where are these ports and can we see photos of them? The website doesn’t say.

On the section of the website labelled “Contact” there is a photo of a container port, and one would assume, with all this experience, that they would use a photo of one of the container ports they have project managed.http://www.port-edl.com/contact/

However, this doesn’t appear to be the case. If you right-click on the photo and select “Search Google for image” you can find numerous examples of this photo turning up in websites relating to India, Malaysia, Nicaragua and various places in Latin America, and it seems to be a generic port photo which is used as a stock image.

So I phoned the great man himself, Robin Bromley-Martin, a few weeks ago and had a conversation in which I asked him which ports he had project managed. He is a most affable fellow, very easy to talk to, but I came away with relatively few hard facts. My understanding is that he is involved with some sort of feasibility study for extending a container port at Calabar, Nigeria, and there may be some preparatory harbour dredging work about to start, but nothing more than that on the ground. There is also a second similar project at (I think) Cotonou in Benin, which is about 150 miles west of Calabar, but that is also just at the "project development" stage and there is also nothing on the ground, other than the existing container port infrastructure which has been built by someone else. I was unable to establish whether he had actually built anything himself, and if so what and where.

So if anyone can glean any more facts from tonight’s meeting, I would be most interested to hear them.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

if I press shift and 3 on my keyboard I get a £. Real £'s are much more difficult to come by, especially £100m of them, as you have to have a decent & detailed business plan with the prospect of a good return for those private investors willing to risk their capital. Even if it went swimmingly according to plan, with 400 berths fully occupied, the revenue this generates would be maximum £3m. Then the operating costs of the marina to be deducted - where is the return for investors?

It is largely pointless creating so much noise and discussion based on some inconsistent drawings and architects impressions when the fundamental issue of a sound business case has not been addressed or proven.

I remain largely sceptical this will ever get out of the ground, but would be very happy to be proved wrong.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

One further thought. At the bottom of the official Ramsey Marina website, under "Technical Advisors" it says "Beckett Rankine, a leading marine engineering consultancy, is advising on the marine aspects...". Their website is here:

Now that is a company which inspires confidence, because their website lists the marinas and other developments they have project managed, they appear to have vast experience, and there are actual photos of the actual things they have done. On the other hand, with the Ramsey Marina project, you have a trio of (apparently) inexperienced people attempting to project manage some project managers who appear to have vastly more experience than they do. How is that supposed to work, and what extra value do the Ramsey Marina promoters add? What happens if there is a dispute between the Ramsey Marina promoters and Beckett Rankine: who has the last word? Wouldn't it be better to cut the Ramsey Marina promoters out of the picture altogether and have Beckett Rankine project manage this?